Me and Charlie challenged in the middle of the night

Last night, in the middle of it, I woke with my right leg straining inside my night splint. I started talking into the nursery monitor (which serves as my only call light). I said my right leg was hurting and I needed to have the splint loosened or taken off. Then, I heard my roommate Charlie, short for Charlotte, say something. I thought she was offering to put her call light on which she frequently does. But, that's not what it was and I could tell there was a problem. I asked her where she was. Eventually, she told me she was on the floor. She had fallen earlier in the evening and was warned not to get up. But she got up anyway, and fell again.

So, here I was hurting and Charlie was on the floor. I spoke directly into my nursery monitor saying quite loudly that Charlie is on the floor and that she felt. They can answer me on that nursery monitor if they have it near them. But no one said anything. For forty-five minutes after that I called for help almost continuously. In between, I checked on Charlie trying to make sure she wasn't unconscious. I encouraged her to keep trying to reach her call light and pull it on, or try to reach her cell phone to call 911.

As the minutes ticked by, I felt so impotent. There was little I could do to help even my roommate, who I knew could be in real trouble, or myself who was in pain.

Charlie finally said she was able to reach the call light and put it on. I hoped against hope that someone would see it.

I was surprised that within ten minutes an aide came through the door. She found Charlie with a forehead laceration, and bleeding all over everywhere. Immediately, that aide went and got the nurse who gave Charlie a tongue lashing for getting up. But Charlie was being Charlie and was feisty to the nurse right back. She likes to move around, and be independent if she can. She also doesn't like waiting for help that seems to be constantly tardy.

I reminded the aide that when Charlie had been cared for, that I needed some assistance.

Within fifteen minutes Charlie was on her way to the ER. Before that, when the paramedics arrived, another aide came over and took off my splints.

For some reason my leg was hurting really badly. I just wondered if I was holding myself stiffly trying to help Charlie and I get through this scary middle of the night..

Charlie got some stitches in her forehead and it's covered by a large bandage. She's been told to stay in bed and put the call light on every time she needs to move somewhere.

Unfortunately, she doesn't always listen to that.